Photos: Close-up views of the Hollywood sign's new paint job and facelift

The Hollywood Sign is undergoing a major new paint job and facelift for the first time in 35 years, and we got up close and personal with it. Check out our full photo gallery above.

For nearly a month now, workers have been stripping off layers upon layers of paint and graffiti slathered onto the giant sign in the Hollywood Hills over the decades.

They'll sand down the corrugated steel, apply a primer and spray on a new glossy coat of white paint. (For those who want to duplicate the color in their own homes, it's Sherwin-Williams Emerald Exterior Satin Acrylic Latex paint.)

The sign was first hauled up to the top of Mount Lee as an advertisement for a new land development called "Hollywoodland." In 1949, the "land" portion of the sign was taken down, leaving the shorter, more generic and now more famous nine-letter sign: "Hollywood."

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